High school genius Vince Nilsson is obsessed with Melissa Price. So when she rejects him after a few dates, he devises the perfect planâ manipulate her genes to make an even better version of her . . . one whoâs more receptive to him. Of course heâll have to kill the real Melissa first. But is it really murder if the person still exists?
As he continues to âperfectâ Melissa, he realizes he can change the world, one gene at a time. Before long, Vince is an underground celebrity, and his company, Emergence, Inc., is in high demand with spouses wishing to replace their better halves with improved clones and parents desiring healthy children.
But the pursuit of perfection has ramifications. Now, decades later, when a body mysteriously shows up at young Leo Oaksâ door, itâs up to him and his girlfriend, Sara Hawking, to unravel the enigmas of a new world where authenticity is ambiguous and no one is who they seem. As the two grow closer, they begin to discover secrets about their own pasts. And just how entwined their lives are with Emergence, Inc. . . .
High school genius Vince Nilsson is obsessed with Melissa Price. So when she rejects him after a few dates, he devises the perfect planâ manipulate her genes to make an even better version of her . . . one whoâs more receptive to him. Of course heâll have to kill the real Melissa first. But is it really murder if the person still exists?
As he continues to âperfectâ Melissa, he realizes he can change the world, one gene at a time. Before long, Vince is an underground celebrity, and his company, Emergence, Inc., is in high demand with spouses wishing to replace their better halves with improved clones and parents desiring healthy children.
But the pursuit of perfection has ramifications. Now, decades later, when a body mysteriously shows up at young Leo Oaksâ door, itâs up to him and his girlfriend, Sara Hawking, to unravel the enigmas of a new world where authenticity is ambiguous and no one is who they seem. As the two grow closer, they begin to discover secrets about their own pasts. And just how entwined their lives are with Emergence, Inc. . . .
The Queen of England wasnât dead.Â
Not yet, at least. Not in 2049.
Right now, at seven in the morning, she was getting ready to have her morning Earl Grey tea with a croissant. She liked to smother her croissants in raspberry preserves and butter. But that was all in the past. Yesterday, when she saw her primary care physician, he informed her that her cholesterol levels were elevated, so she decided to go easy on the butter.Â
âYour Majesty, are you sure?â the waiter asked. He was familiar with all of the queenâs routinesâand butter on her croissant was a tradition.Â
âYes, Charles, less butter,â she said, yawning. She placed a palm on her mouth and glanced at the window. âGod, what a dreary morning in England. Will the rain ever stop?â
Charlesâa chubby man in his fifties with a hearty laugh and a bald headâglanced at the window. Indeed, it was dark and dreary out there. The only thing that brightened Buckingham Palace was the green of the vast lawn and the various flowers. He always imagined more flowers than there really were, optimist that he was.Â
âItâs not so bad, madam,â he replied after a momentary pause. âIf you look at the flowers below and donât pay attention to the black sky above.â
The queen laughed. âI guess youâll have to teach me to look at the ground. You know, I was taught to walk upright, to keep that elegant posture with head erect. I never did look at anything but sky all of my life.â
âThatâs probably why youâve been so depressed lately,â Charles observed. âToo much sky for you and not enough ground.â
âMaybe.â The queen shrugged her tired shoulders and repositioned herself in the chair. She blinked her eyes rhythmically, activating her electronic contacts, and a screen appeared in her right eye.Â
âPlay the news,â she commanded.
âYou requested to watch the news,â she heard the voice in her earpiece say.Â
âYes,â she replied.Â
The news began to play.Â
She watched the morning news while Charles got her breakfast in order. She liked Charles. In fact, if it werenât for the gloomy weather, she would say she loved England, too.Â
Mike, a soldier with the Queenâs Guard, stood a few feet from the queen. A few more of the Guard stood near the doorway, with an additional handful spread liberally throughout the various corners of the Palace.Â
Mike yawned. He hadnât slept ever since his girlfriend found some new lube online. She had made love to him five times in a row last night, making him quite exhausted.Â
âWhatâs wrong?â she asked after the fourth round. âWhy are you so short of breath?â
She looked concerned.Â
Mike rolled off her. âI donât know,â he muttered, still breathless. âI guess my cardio isnât where it needs to be.â
âDo you want me to get on top of you?â
Mike couldnât believe what he was hearing. âYou mean you want to have sex again?â
âWellââ she began.Â
âDamn, girl,â he muttered. âWhatâs gotten into you?â
âIâm sorry, Mikey,â she murmured, seductively. And she always called him Mikey when she wanted something. âI just havenât felt this good in ages, you know.â
âOh, what the hell,â he said as he positioned himself between her legs. âLetâs pretend weâre seventeen again.âÂ
He started the engines. She began to moan softly.Â
So that was how they made love a fifth time. And it was that fifth time that did him in.Â
He could feel that fifth round even as he stood next to the queen, pretending to be alert and oriented and all of that fun, soldier stuff.Â
The queen didnât pay any attention to him. To her, he was practically invisible. In fact, all of the Queenâs Guards were.Â
Mike didnât know thisâand how could he?âbut the queen was going to be dead soon. And, to make matters worse, there was nothing he was going to do about any of it. Even if he wanted to save the queen, he would not have gotten far. He did not know this, but the gun he was holding was useless. The bullet in the chamber was a dud. Even if he were to pull the trigger, nothing would happen. Of course, that was assuming he would pull the trigger.Â
But who would pull the trigger and shoot their own queen? Mike? Never. Charles? Never.
Charles walked out with the food tray.Â
âAll done, Your Majesty,â he murmured as he placed the croissant with the tea on the table.Â
âThank you, Charles,â she replied, taking a sip from the tea.Â
The queen was going to be dead soon.Â
Had Mike known any of it, he probably would have been suspicious of the tea.Â
Potassium cyanide? Ricin? Who-knows-what?
Wrong, wrong, and wrong. All wrong.Â
The queen heard a small disturbance outside. She placed her spoon down and paused to listen. It was the sound of three self-driving buses pulling up to the Palace, a few hundred feet away.Â
Mike would have heard the sound had he been paying any attention to strange sounds, but he wasnât. He was tired and his eyes were half-open, half-closed. To be quite frank, Mike was basically sleeping.Â
The queen continued to drink her tea without being aware of anything unusual.
The three buses were shaped like subway trains; they were made of steel and painted silver. They had no windows. They seemed to stop at about the same time, as if in synchronic tune with each other.Â
Guards stood silently outside, paying no attention to them.Â
A few seconds later, large doors opened upwards, revealing a mass of people inside. Thirty-three in each bus.
Inside the Palace, the queen took a bite of the croissant and chewed it methodically.Â
Hmm, she thought. Itâs not as good without all of that rich butter.
Mike swayed a bit, wishing he were back at home sleeping. He straightened out and pretended to focus.Â
Outside the Palace, and only for a split second, the buses stood in absolute silence, as if they were going to remain silent for all eternity. A blade of grass broke through the ground somewhere, and it was quiet enough for a dog to hear it.Â
And then all hell broke loose.Â
Ninety-nine clones stepped off the buses and began to run towards the Palace.Â
Ninety-nine clones.Â
And every single one of them looked like the queen.Â
The guards outside the palace froze over with fear and confusion. Instinct called to raise their weapons, but instinct also told them to never shoot the queen. And all they saw before them were queens.Â
 By the time the clones entered the Palace, Mike was drooling and dreaming.Â
The crowd of queens crashed through the doors, setting hinges and screws flying through the sterile Palace air. The real queen, who was still trying to finish her croissant, jumped in her seat once she turned and faced the madness. Her eyes popped and she became hysterical.Â
âMike! Mike!â the real queen yelled. âMike! Do something!â
Mike heard a voice calling, as if in the distance. He blinked. His eyes had that morning haze to them. All he could see when he opened them was a blur. The queen was yelling something.Â
Was she saying his name? She knew his name?
He blinked his confused eyes again.
The queen ran over, grasped his uniform, and began to plead with Mike. âDo something!â she kept on saying.Â
The clones followed suit and began to imitate the real queen.
No, no. It wasnât the queen pleading with him, it was ten or twenty queens. All of them pleading for him to do something.Â
But what? What was he to do?
Mike pointed his gun at the ceiling and pulled the trigger. Nothing. He pulled it again. Still nothing.
The crowd of queens, seeing him raise his gun, began to drop to the floor, one by one. They cowered in fear and covered their identical heads with equally identical hands.Â
What the hell?What in the bloody hell is going on?
He couldnât believe his eyes.Â
There was no way in hell this was a dream, or was it?
 A hundred Guards ran into the dining area. They looked at the floor and then at Mike.Â
He didnât know what to say.
âThe queenââ he stuttered. âThe queen wants us to do something.â
Of course, she does.Â
If only any of them knew who the real queen was.Â
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An Ambitious Novel With Much Potential
Bodies: A Romantic Bloodbath is a very ambitious novel with some intriguing and enlightening insights into the human psyche. It transports the reader into an all-too-possible near future where humanity is on the cusp of a major threshold in evolution.
While focusing in on the lives of a few individuals, mainly connected through the Counselor, this strange romance also addresses big questions about the future of humankind. At times I was a little confused, and at other times a little revolted. However, itâs worth pushing through those moments to grasp the bigger picture of whatâs going on here.
This novel has a rather explosive opening that is quite comical and entertaining as well as providing a great hook. However, the narrator is a bit misleading in parts. In particular, itâs implied that the prologueâs main character will die imminently.
Vince is the first main character introduced, though Iâd say heâs more of an antagonist than a protagonist. Itâs difficult to say because this story becomes quite convoluted as it progresses.
Introduced as an underdog, Vince is quite a sympathetic character to begin with. However, that soon changes as his behavior becomes more erratic. He does have a nice character arc though he isnât focused on enough toward the end of the book to make it clear whatâs actually happening with him. Although heâs important throughout, he is quite in the shadows later on.
The true protagonist isnât introduced until Chapter 4, p. 69. Heâs called Leo. Of course he is. Because when youâve got a major science fiction epic that potentially rivals The Matrix for scope, you need a Leo. Just in case itâs not clear to the reader that Leo is the real deal â the protagonist of this long tale â he is the only character who narrates his story in the first person.
Leo owns the main plot arc which is, strangely, the romance plot line. Given how epic the main action plot is, I was a little taken aback by this. Leo should be quite a likeable guy because heâs another underdogâŚand a better behaved one than Vince, to be sure.
However, some of Leoâs internal thoughts as the story develops reveal that heâs kinda shallow and sometimes not very nice. Again, I enjoyed his character development arc. BUT, I feel that his final state of attitude toward others (which I canât go into details about without spoilers) feels to come out of the blue without any significant shown character development before this.
Sara is the single truly angelic figure in this story and the most significant female character. I say sheâs an angel because she has no obvious flaws. Indeed, she puts others before herself on multiple occasions and helps out anyone she can no matter their attitude toward her or status within society. Sheâs the kind of girl you donât want your daughter to be because sheâd soon become a doorstep.
I was a little confused about the Queen of England, which is a shame. It spoiled the effect a little. I was confused because the story is set in 2049, which would make her 123 years old if itâs Queen Elizabeth.
At first I thought that modern medicine had miraculously helped her to stay alive for longer. But then things happen when she meets the youngest ever President of the United States that make me think it canât possibly be her.
It could be Princess Charlotte. Sheâd be 34 in 2049. However, that would require Charles to die younger than his mom did, William to die before heâs 69, and her older brother Prince George to die before heâs 36. If it had been clarified who the Queen was by name, it would have been easier to visualize and much more plausible in the scene with the President.
More significantly, I think the author misunderstood the role of a monarch within a constitutional monarchy. Yes, the Queen signs off all the laws before they can become law and has the power to dissolve Parliament. In this way, sheâs pretty similar to the POTUS.
However, unlike the POTUS, the Queen has no real influence on what laws are made. Those are decided by committees and passed by debate in the two Houses of Parliament. She just signs the things when theyâre done. The only figurehead who can significantly influence what laws are passed in the Prime Minister. Since he or she is changed on a regular basis, they wouldnât fit into this story very well.
Strangely, despite the bloodbath that this novel is, the main plot appears to be Leo finding the love of his life. Itâs difficult to pin that down, though, since there are so many things going on in this novel.
The action plot, concerning the arrival of clones and their impact on society, is much more interesting. However, I was disappointed that it doesnât really seem to go anywhere. Maybe there will be a sequel novel where it does.
Within this novel, the author set up many significant plot lines concerning the clones, the people hiding from the clones, the clones in positions of power, and the laws about cloning. But after these plots have been set going, and there is obvious conflict, nothing actually feels like it gets resolved. The only one plot line that is completed within the novel concerns Leo and the love of his life.
Overall, I was disappointed by the plot development. While I found the resolution of the relationship plot very satisfying, I would have liked a clearer end to all the various action plot lines.
It didnât matter that the various action plot lines werenât resolved by the end of the novel. What I was disappointed about was that they werenât left in some kind of clear positionâŚlike a distinct step along the way toward resolution.
The plot lines were all just left hanging with no obvious direction or place to go. I really wanted to be able to understand the end game that the various players were aiming at â their end goals. At least, thatâs how I felt when I reached the end of the novel.
The whole clone thing is great. I loved all of that, especially the extra abilities clones have over humans.
The buildings, however, were often rather over the top. Every significant character appeared to live in a palace bigger than Buckingham Palace. Except Leo, of course. He is the underdog.
There was one major continuity error. Itâs on p.12 and relates to an action at the bottom of p.10. Basically, you canât repair two holes in a glass windowpane with OxyComplete no matter how hard you scrub it.
As an aside issue, bullets end up somewhere. If they passed through a body, they would then wind up embedded in a wall or other solid object. Unless, of course, they stayed inside that body. Also, moving bodies across a yard would likely leave some trace.
So, focusing on just the first issue, the implication that the events would be impossible to detect is completely false. To make this right, either the window should have been open at the beginning of the scene (which it isnât because the breaking of the glass is mentioned) or the character involved had the best windowpane replacing skills the world ever saw.
I had a few problems with the prose. It was clear enough, but often it appeared to be telling rather than showing the story.
Most significantly, there was a lot of profanity and generally crude talk. I mean, I donât mind a little here and there, but this novel took it to an extreme. I havenât read stuff with this level of profanity and crudity since Gore Vidalâs and Anthony Burgessâs novels from the 60s and 70s.
On the other hand, this same profanity and crudity offered an interesting insight into the human thought process. I liked how the author offered an uncensored view into peopleâs raw thoughtsâŚtheir most perverted desires or violent dreams. On the whole, after reading the novel, I decided that the level of profanity was warranted. It provided an extremely realistic picture of how people think.
This is an original and intriguing science fiction novel. It has a lot of great things going for it. However, by the end of the novel, I didnât feel that I got the full picture of everything.
What I mean is that after reading I wasnât fully clear about all the characters and their place in the world or in this story. One of the important characters only appears at the very end, and weâve no idea about her history (other than her earliest childhood) or her in-depth thoughts about society at this point in time. Yet the whole resolution of the story so far depends on her.
Further, I didnât get a good enough grasp of what was going on in society and with the various big players by the end. I didnât get what everyoneâs goals were. In particular, the Counselorâs goals are clouded. He appears to lean in one direction and then suddenly acts very strongly in favor of the other on multiple occasions.
For this reason, I fear I can only give this book 3 out of 5 at the moment. I feel it should do much better than this. It is a better story. BUT I feel that it maybe needs to be 20% longer and to give us more satisfying endings to the various plots. Iâd also like more clarity in general.
In summary, I believe this would be a wonderful novel if the ending did not feel so rushed and incomplete. It needs to be longer and contain more clear resolution of the political and societal conflicts toward the end.
Notice:
I received an advance review copy for free, but this review is my honest opinion of the book.